Tuesday 13th October 2015 ~ Blue Bus Blues

A bit like the X1 blog - another magnificent obsession. 33814 in King's Lynn garage on the evening of 10th October.

With several buses having sustained body panel damage in recent months, affected vehicles are being dealt with at the bodyshops at Full Circle near Norwich. In the past month 33807 has spent a fortnight being repaired and on its return on October 6th, 33817 went to the same destination for attention to a nasty crease in the rear bodywork sustained many months back. From an operational point of view, the Enviro 400s at the west end of the route have been quite well behaved. Yesterday (12th) however, 33811 broke down at Thorney Toll on an afternoon working and it is believed to require new injectors / injector linings before it can be returned to traffic. Other casualties have been few and far between though, notably on 16th September when the 09.44 Wisbech - Peterborough was cancelled because of a problem with 33805 and on 5th October when 33816 was unable to work the 16.15 King's Lynn - Peterborough I think because of a problem with its water pump. On the positive side 33814 & 33815 have worked on 40 out of the last 42 days, the latter having been out every day since September 7th.
Showbus this year was at Woburn Abbey on 20th September and 33808 represented the X1 fleet in what I'm told was a rather muddy affair ! Over in the East, the highlight - if that is the right word - appears to have been the use of Streetlite 47505 on the 10.00 Lowestoft - Yarmouth on 24th September, Malcolm wonders if it went through to Norwich ? Well according to the East Norfolk bus blog, it did Malcolm and ENBB also report the recent arrival at Great Yarmouth of former X1 Paragon 20501 for contract work after a pending MOT.
Here are a few recent pictures as I decided it was high time I got out and about with the camera again - gosh I've even got some drivers requesting to appear in the blog, whatever next :)

After a rather scrumptious lunch at the Woolpack at Terrington St. John (recommended for generous portions and if you feel so inclined, a good place to spot passing X1s !) we were just about to leave on Friday 2nd October when, rather conveniently 33806 appeared heading east working the 12.55 Wisbech to King's Lynn otherwise known as the 12.05 Peterborough - Norwich service.

Having been rather pleased with my Friday photo, I decided to take a few more next day although the weather wasn't quite as bright. This is one of my favourite spots as you will probably know, near Walpole Highway and here 33804 was captured working the 11.35 Peterborough - Norwich.

Having seen 33804 at Walpole, the opportunity seemed too good to pass up, so my chauffeur drove back along the route so that I could try and get two Enviros  in one picture. This was the rather poor result at Terrington St. John with 33804 peeling away in the distance as 33815 passes by on the 10.30 Norwich - Peterborough. 

Once the sun moves round after lunch it is not easy to get good pictures of eastbound services in this locality, hence this rather head on shot of 33812 passing through Walpole Highway while working the 12.35 Peterborough - Norwich again on Saturday October 3rd.

Westbound afternoon services are a totally different prospect photographically and on a very pleasant Sunday 4th October, Bruce and myself were having a chinwag about all things X1 when 33812 (again) passed by at just after 2pm working the 12.05 Norwich - Peterborough.

On an altogether greyer Saturday 10th October, 33806 is seen again heading for Wisbech near Walton Highway forming the 09.50 Norwich - Peterborough X1.